The present disclosure relates generally to implantable electronic medical devices. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an acoustic computing system and network having at least one implant/dermal acoustic computing element, wherein the system/network enables implant and dermal data communication, power supply and energy storage.
Implantable electronic medical devices (i.e., “implants”) have enabled significant advances in the treatment of many challenging medical conditions. One example is implantable pacemakers that stimulate the heart muscle to regulate its contractions. Another example is a cochlear implant, which is an electronic device that partially restores hearing in people who have severe hearing loss due to damage of the inner ear. A processor behind the ear captures and processes sound signals, which are transmitted to a receiver that is surgically placed under the skin. Some implants are bioactive, such as subcutaneous drug delivery devices in the form of implantable pills or drug-eluting stents. The increasing demand for implantable medical device technologies is fuelled by the growing elderly population and the general increase in chronic diseases.
Radio frequency (RF) tags have been demonstrated as implants that are capable of transmitting RF data from inside a patient to an external device capable of reading the transmitted signal. RF implant devices are typically used subcutaneously because their RF signals do not transmit well through an aqueous media over long distances (e.g., more than an inch or two) due to the rate at which an aqueous media attenuates and absorbs RF signals. Additionally, due to a variety of constraints (e.g., cost) the typical RF implant device is passive. Active RF implant devices require power to be supplied usually by internal batteries or inductive coupling to a power supply that is external to the patient. For inductive coupling implementations, the coupling efficiency is proportional to the size of the implanted device. RF implant devices also raise privacy concerns because of the possibility that they can they can be read without patient knowledge and consent.